Biography of Richard Maudelain -1400

The Deposition of King Richard II. 12th August 1399. Then the earl went on board a vessel and crossed the water. He found King Richard, and the Earl of Salisbury (age 49) with him, as well as the Bishop of Carlisle. He said to the king,^p "Sire, Duke Henry hath sent me hither to the end that an agreement should be made between you, and that you should be good friends for the time to come, — If it be your pleasure, Sire, and I may be heard, I will deliver to you his message, and conceal nothing of the truth; — If you will be a good judge and true, and will bring up all those whom I shall here name to you, by a certain day, for the ends of justice; listen to the parliament which you shall lawfully cause to be held between you at Westminster, and restore him to be chief judge of England, as the duke his father^q and all his ancestors had been for more than an hundred years. I will tell you the names of those who shall await the trial. May it please you, Sire, it is time they should."

Note p. We are here supplied with some additional matter from the MS. Ambassades. Huntingdon, by command of the duke, sent one of his retinue after Northumberland with two letters, one for Northumberland, the other for the king. When he appeared before the king with seven attendants, he was asked by him, if he had not met his brother on the road? "Yes, Sire," he answered," and here is a letter he gave me for you." The king looked at the letter and the seal, and saw that it was the seal of his brother; then he opened the letter and read it. All that it contained was this, "My very dear Lord, I commend me to you: and you will believe the earl in every thing that he shall say to you. For I found the duke at my city of Chester, who has a great desire to have a good peace and agreement with you, and has kept me to attend upon him till he shall know your pleasure."² When the king had read this letter, he turned to Northumberland, and said, "Now tell me what message you bring." To which the earl replied, "My very dear Lord, the Duke of Lancaster hath sent me to you, to tell you that what he most wishes for in this world is to have peace and agreement with you; and he greatly repents with all his heart of the displeasure that he hath caused you now and at other times; and asks nothing of you in this living world, save that it may please you to account him your cousin and friend; and that it may please you only to let him have his land; and that he may be chief judge of England, as his father and his predecessors have been, and that all other things of time past may be put in oblivion between you two; for which purpose he hath chosen umpires (juges) for yourself and for him, that is to say, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Earl of Salisbury, Maudelain, and the Earl of Westmorland; and charges them with the agreement that is between you and him. Give me an answer, if you please; for all the greatest lords of England and the commons are of this opinion." On which the king desired him to withdraw a little, and he should have an answer soon.¹

The latter part of this speech contains an important variation from the metrical history, worthy of the artifice of the earl; but the opposite account of our eye-witness, confirmed in Richard's subsequent address to his friends, is doubtless the true representation. The writer of MS. Ambassades might be at this time at Chester; but admitting that he had been in the train of Northumberland on the journey, he could not have been present at the conference.

Note 2. Accounts and Extracts, II. p. 219.

Note 1. MS. Ambassades, pp. 134, 135. Mr. Allen's Extracts.

Note q. The style of the duke his father was, John, the son of the King of England, Duke of Guienne and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Steward of England.² " The word seneshal," says Rastall, "was borrowed by the French of the Germans; and signifies one that hath the dispensing of justice in some particular cases, as the High Steward of England;"^1a the jurisdiction of his court, by the statute,^2a" shall not pass the space of twelve miles to be counted from the lodgings of our Lord the King."

These "particular cases" would, however, have secured to him a power of exercising his vengeance upon the parties who are immediately afterwards named. But the request urged with such apparent humility was only a part of the varnish of the plot. He had not waited for Richard's consent, having already, within two days after his arrival at Chester, assumed the title upon his own authority. In Madox, Formulare Anglicanum, p. 327, is a letter of safe conduct from Henry to the prior of Beauval, dated from that place, August 10, 23 Richard II. in which he styles himself" Henry, Due de Lancastre,Conte de Derby, de Leycestre, de Herford, et de Northampton, Seneschal d'Angleterre."

He conferred the office upon Thomas, his second son, by patent dated October 8, 1399; constituting at the same time Thomas Percy Deputy High Steward during the minority of the prince.^3a

Note 2. Cotton's Abridgement, p. 343.

Note 1a. Termes de la Ley. v. Sene

Note 2a. 13 Ric. II. St. 1. c. 3.

Note 3a. Rymer, Fœdera, VIII. p. 90.

Illustration 11. King Richard II of England (age 32), standing in black and red, meeting with Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland (age 57) at Conwy Castle [Map].

Accounts and Extracts. January 1400. Maudlin also was taken, and conducted to London. He asked the mayor, if he should be quartered? "No," said the mayor, "but your head will be cut off." Then Maudlin thanked God that he should die in the service of his fovereign lord the noble king Richard.

In January 1400 Richard Maudelain was beheaded.

The Deposition of King Richard II. "Yes, (tell me them,) I desire to know who they are." "Know, Sire, that the first is your brother; the second who hath behaved amiss is the Duke of Surrey, who is, indeed, put in prison in the castle of Chester, for some offence committed against Duke Henry. Another is the Earl of Salisbury, together with the Bishop of Carlisle; the fifth, as I have heard my lord say, is Maudelain.^r These are they who agreed and counselled you to put your uncle most wrongfully to death; and if they deny it, they await the judgment of your parliament, wherein you shall be highly crowned a sovereign king. There also shall Duke Henry be chief judge. Those who have been guilty of crime or treason shall be punished without partiality. Such is the determination of my lord. Certes, dear Sire, he would do nothing that is foolish or unreasonable. I would moreover speak to you of another thing; that you will speedily appoint the day; for there is nothing in the world that he more desireth; I know it well; and he wisheth for nothing but his land, and that which appertaineth to him; neither would have any thing that is yours,^s for you are his immediate, rightful king; and he regretteth in his conscience the great mischief and wrong that he hath done unto you, through the evil persuasion of the enemy, who never slumbereth nor sleepeth, but is ever watchful to tempt mankind. It is he who hath whispered to him all that he hath done. Wherefore, for the sake of him who suffered unparalleled death for us upon the cross, may it please you, be gentle unto my lord, who is sorrowful and afflicted, and for once lay aside your wrath; and he will most humbly come on his knees before you, and sue for mercy. This done, together shall ye go to London, like devout and peaceful men; or, if you choose to go a different road you shall take it; and then shall the parliament be proclaimed throughout the land. Be sure of all this: I will swear to it upon the body of our Lord, consecrated by the priest's hand, that Duke Henry shall most faithfully observe all that I have said, and every thing as I have told you; for he solemnly pledged it to me upon the sacrament when last we parted. Now consider, Sire, how you will act, for I have tarried long."

Note r. Richard Maudelain, a priest of the chapel royal, who resembled the king so much in size, feature, and speech, that he was employed by the insurgents at Christmas to personate him in the army.

Un chapellain, [A chaplain,]

Qui resembloit si de certain [Who resembled so certainly]

Au bon roy Richart de visage, [The good King Richard in face,]

De corps, de fait, et de langage, [In body, in deed, and in speech,]

Qu'il n'est homme qui le vist [That there was no man who saw him]

Qui ne ccrtifiast et dist [Who did not affirm and say]

Que ce fust le roy ancien. [That it was the former king.]

This man appears to have been one of the most obsequious and daring of Richard's creatures; and served him in several confidential and difficult undertakings.¹ Thus he was sent to bring over money from Ireland; and to attend the corpse of the Duke of Gloucester from Calais to London.² The king gave him some property in Fleet-street, and the suburbs of London, which had belonged to Henry Bowet, clerk,³ a particular friend of the Duke of Lancaster, who had upon his account been attainted of treason, 22 Rich. II.⁴ So that for many reasons Henry had an especial dislike to Maudelain. He was a witness to Richard's will,⁵ and went with him upon the Irish expedition. On their return to Milford he was among those of his council who had advised him to withdraw from his army into France, see p. 77. I have already said p. 92, that he probably absconded; for, as he is a remarkable personage, it would have been mentioned had he been in the suite at Conway. When the rebels were dispersed at Cirencester he was taken in attempting to escape with Ferriby, and conducted to London for execution. He asked the mayor if he should be quartered. " No," said the mayor, "but your head will be cut off." Then Maudelain thanked God that he should die in the service of his sovereign lord, the noble king Richard.⁶ Walsingham oddly styles him, I. Mawdlyn Mawde.⁷

Note s. Henry's appearance in arms was but too symptomatic of a treasonable design against Richard not to excite strong suspicions in those who were unacquainted with his real intentions, and might not wish that the matter should be pushed to extremities. By the statute of Northampton, promulgated in the time of Edward III.^1a and glossed upon and confirmed by many subsequent enactments in Richard's reign it was actual treason.^2a No man could "ride armed in harness with launcegays, nor go armed by night nor by day, nor bear sallet, nor skull of iron, nor raise people and ride against the king, upon pain of treason." So that to meet all imputations arising from his display of warlike preparation, his vengeance was at first professed only against the favourites of the court, who had abused the confidence of their sovereign, and had been the instigators of tyrannical measures. Besides this, to quiet the scruples of many of his well-wishers, who might look to reform rather than revolution; and to persuade others, probably the Archbishop of York in particular, of the purity of his intentions, and that he had no ulterior view than that of private justice, and an arrangement for the general good of the realm, he made oath upon the sacrament at Doncaster,^3a immediately upon his landing, and afterwards at Chester,^4a that he came to claim no more than his inheritance, which the ill-advised Richard had, contrary to promise, seized into his hands. "For this," says Baker^5a shrewdly, " was a reason had no objection; the other he reserved till his power should not need to regard objections." And here, in professing to the king that he wished to touch none of his rights, he gave the Percys a lesson which they afterwards retorted upon him. In the beginning of their opposition to him, before the battle of Shrewsbury, "scripserunt provincialibus ubilibet constitutis, propositum quod assumpserant, non esse contra suam ligantiam, et fidelitatem quam regi fecerant nee; ab aliunde exercitum congregasse, nisi pro salvatione personarum suarum, et reipublicae meliori gubernatione, &c. Plures igitur, visis his literis, collaudabant tantorum virorum solertiam, et extollebant fidem quam erga rempublicam praetendebant."^6a

Note 1. APPENDIX, No. I

Note 2. Rymer, Fœdera, VIII. pp. 20, 21, 31.

Note 3. Calend. Rot. pat. p. 236. a. 3. p. 22 Ric. No. 24.

Note 4. Cotton, p. 381.

Note 5. Rymer, ut supra, p. 77.

Note 6. Accounts and Extracts, II. p. 235.

Note 7. Hist. Angl. p. 363.

Note 1a. Stat. 2 Edw. III. c.3

Note 2a. Stat. 2 Ric. II. c. 6. 7 Ric. II. c. 13. 20 Ric.II. c. 1. 21 Ric. II. e. 3

Note 3a. Ther sware the duke upon the sacrament

To claim no more but hii mother's heritage. Hardyng, by Ellis, p. 350.

Note 4a. Maydestone, Hist, de Martyr. Ric. Scrope, Anglia Sacra, pars secunda, p. 369.

Note 5a. Chronicle, p. 154.

Note 6a. Walsing. Hist. Angl. p. 367. "They wrote to the provincials established wherever they were, stating that the purpose they had undertaken was not against their loyalty and the faith they had pledged to the king; nor had they gathered an army from elsewhere, except for the preservation of their own persons and for the better governance of the commonwealth, etc. Therefore, many, upon seeing these letters, praised the prudence of such great men and extolled the faith they professed toward the commonwealth."

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